Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Rep. Lamar Smith Believes Trump is the Most Trustworthy News Source

U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, Congress' top climate change denier (who's been into "alternative facts" long before they were cool) and member of the House Freedom of the Press caucus has decided there's only one news source the American people can trust: Donald Trump.

“Better to get your news directly from the president. In fact, it might be the only way to get the unvarnished truth," Smith said in a Tuesday night speech on the House floor.

The "liberal media," he added, won't publish anything about Trump's accomplishments or the fact that he has the "stamina of a bull elephant."

"He has tremendous energy," Smith said. "He is courageous and fearless. Given the amount of hate directed his way, no doubt he constantly receives death threats, but that doesn’t curtail his public appearances or seem to worry him in the least.”

Apparently, this also meets the description of an ideal media outlet to Smith.

We won't go into just how bad the new president is at delivering facts (a July investigation found that 78 percent of Trump's statements are "mostly false") — a quality that has clearly done little to dissuade Trump's far-right fans in Congress.

But let's remember who's behind this claim. Smith, chair of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, is not particularly known to appreciate factual information. Smith remains unconvinced that human activity is the main contributor to global climate change, despite 99 percent of the world’s scientists believing otherwise. He believes federal departments like NASA and NOAA have fabricated their peer-reviewed scientific studies. He calls stories linking severe droughts to climate change "fake news."

Perhaps, then, it should come as no surprise that President Trump is Congressman Smith's go-to news source.